The United States and Middle East peace: the case for arbitrating Israeli-Palestinian disputes.

Events in the past two years have shown that US participation is not indispensable to achieving an Arab-Israeli peace. This fact has prompted many to reevaluate what kind of role the US should play in the Middle East peace process. Although US officials themselves believe that they should assume a less active role, it is also becoming increasingly apparent that the whole process needs the US as an arbiter.

The Palestinian-Israeli Declaration of Principles agreement (DOP) of September 1993 shattered a long-standing axiom of Middle East diplomacy: that Arab-Israeli peace agreemen